福蓋正行所集經

At that time the Lord of Heaven, bearing upon his head the Maṇi Jewel crown, came from the Heaven of the Thirty-Three (Trāyastriṃśa) before the Buddha. Beholding the bodily marks of the Buddha and his various adornments of virtue, his mind was filled with abundant joy such as had never been before. He bowed his head and face to the feet of the World-Honored One, and then, with a clear and mighty voice, extolled the virtues of the Buddha.

If indeed sentient beings, beholding the fine marks of the Buddha, give rise to a rare and extraordinary mind of offering, reverence, esteem, and praise, they will at once destroy the four kinds of karma, accomplish those great meanings, and obtain those joys. All of you—devas, humans, and the hosts of māras and brahmās—shall come here to meet the Unsurpassed Ones. At that time there was the Great Sage Vidyādhara (Trì Minh), together with the Sun and Moon Deva-sons and those dwelling together with him, such as: the deva of water, the deva of fire, the deva of much learning, Yama Deva, the Great Brahmā Deva, the deva of firm strength, Nārāyaṇa Deva, the deva Balaṇa-māna, and so forth;

together with the nāga-spirits, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, piśācas, putanas, mahoragas, and the like—such kinds as these, all of one heart, made offerings, paid homage, and praised the merit of the Buddha.

This is the One who transcends the world, foremost in wisdom, of vast renown, whom nowhere is there none that knows. The Venerable Śāriputra, together with the great Śrāvakas, all of them, were unable to fully fathom that realm of wisdom. From the summit of Sumeru up to the Akaniṣṭha Heaven of the Form Realm, all sentient beings came to behold the Tathāgata: the Worthy of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the One Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, the Well-Gone One, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed One, the Tamer of Beings, the Teacher of Gods and Humans, the Buddha, the World-Honored One.

In this place of expounding the Dharma, he speaks words that are not false, good in the beginning, middle, and end; these words are skillful and subtle, their meaning profound and far-reaching, able to dispel that which is seldom heard by sentient beings who are without wisdom, foolish, dull, and benighted. He causes them, having heard, to give rise to great awakening, to delight in cultivating right conduct, to increase the life of wisdom, and decisively to be spared from entering the fearsome evil paths.

He is able to open wide the gate of the city of Nirvāṇa and enter the inconceivable realm of liberation.

In this sutra is spoken the prior cause of the canopy of merit. How is this clearly known?—Having heard thus, one then broadly practices pure giving and firmly upholds the prohibitive precepts. Toward the pleasures of the world one gives rise to no craving or defilement.

Such acts of benefit cause favorable faith to arise. Cultivating and creating in this way, one soon attains accomplishment. It is like a person who, in the dark of night, carries a great torch into a house; then everything therein is seen to be fully illumined.

Within it are stored many precious treasures and all kinds of goods—whether fine or coarse, each and every one is revealed. All can be received and used, bringing peace, ease, and joy. If, moreover, there is a person who, with respect to this sutra, receives and upholds it, reads and recites it, delights in hearing its profound meaning, draws near to the Dharma masters, reflects in accordance with reason, and gives rise in mind to awakening, then know that this person is able, throughout the long night of birth and death, to carry the lamp of wisdom and enter the city of Nirvāṇa.

With respect to that profound Dharma, whether in principle or in phenomena, all is fully understood. Furthermore, he attains penetrating comprehension, departs from doubts and confusions, destroys all benightedness, leaves far behind the cycle of rebirth, and his mind attains liberation, so that he may enjoy the inexhaustible bliss of the Dharma.

As the World-Honored One taught: the world is with outflows (āsrava); therefore there is no great wisdom there; only by realizing right knowledge can one destroy benightedness. Therefore the wise must seek the right Dharma that is supramundane and without outflows. With respect to the teachings within the sutras, one's reasoning and discussion must accord with the teaching of the Dharma; therefore one should observe well.

It is like the various kinds of sentient beings who create merit or non-merit—each and every one must undergo its corresponding karmic retribution, decisively without error. One should understand that the world, all of it, arises from causes and conditions. If there were no sentient beings, then there would be no afflictions.

If there were no afflictions, then there would be no hells. Therefore I speak of the Dharma of causes and conditions; it is not like the heterodox who, clinging to wrong views, see otherwise. Without cause and without condition, they hold that all dharmas can yet be produced.

They reckon wrongly yet wish to bring abundant benefit. As for one who strips the fur and hide of birds and beasts, and one who takes them to cover his body—such matters are plainly evident; how could they be due to the conditions of phantom karma? For this reason one must understand that the world indeed can be thus, and that to escape from there is likewise a matter of nature—they do not cultivate and create.

But the Tathāgata, having clearly understood, gives rise to a mind of great compassion, with loving thought transforms and teaches. Using bright wisdom, he eradicates those benightednesses, gradually causing beings to awaken and enter into all kinds of knowledge. Casting off the deeply rooted wrong views and relying upon the Buddha-Dharma, the mind shall then attain liberation.

In the sutra it is said: the Buddha has shown the way to repent of faults; therefore he expounds the various dharmas, enabling beings to escape the cycle of rebirth and obtain marvelous joys. One sees presently that the kinds of sentient beings in the world, whether they create merit or do not create merit, undergo the retribution of joy or sorrow. It is like the Elder Anāthapiṇḍika, who gave rise to a pure mind and used as much as thirty masses of gold, silver, and precious treasures to make offerings to the Tathāgata and his disciples and the Arhats such as Aniruddha and the rest, in order to establish a vihāra.

This was a great offering, and in his present life he obtained immeasurable merit and reward: his fame resounded everywhere, he was at peace, secure, and wealthy, possessed of all kinds of precious goods, all stored to overflowing; his relatives and friends, his servants and helpers, were beyond reckoning. All was made perfectly complete, his enjoyment inexhaustible, and his joy boundless. All of this came from giving, which then brought about the recompense of this matter.

Furthermore, the Tathāgatas, with immeasurable kindness toward all sentient beings, are like a skilled physician who uses fine medicines to cure the worldly ailments such as toxic winds, phlegm and mucus, and all sorts of diseases, making them altogether lighter. The Tathāgata is likewise so: he skillfully speaks the medicine of the Dharma, which can cause the root afflictions of sentient beings to be cut off entirely, so that liberation may be attained.

But those kinds of sentient beings, because they have no wholesome seeds and also no strength, cannot grow and flourish; they do not seek liberation, and the three poisons, the root of the disease, are the place of their bondage. For this reason such persons are truly difficult to convert and deliver. Therefore the Tathāgata, with a mind of impartial great compassion, giving no thought to enemy or kin, gives them the medicine of the Dharma to make them well again.

For their sake he therefore speaks of giving, of upholding precepts, and the various practices, and so forth, so that they may receive and uphold them and enter deeply into the scriptures.

Furthermore, even the very body of such a one is truly hard to obtain—like a blind turtle meeting a floating piece of wood—diligently cultivating the ten wholesome deeds and seeking to leave the sea of suffering. Then one again obtains a human body; yet one is not born in a place where the Path exists, and the faculties are not complete. Or one's mind takes no delight in the Buddha-Dharma.

Or, when born again, one does not encounter a world in which there is a Buddha; or, on account of evil karma, one undergoes the retribution of being mute and stammering, the mouth unable to proclaim the right Dharma of the Buddha. With respect to the merit of the Buddha, one is unable to understand it. Furthermore, there are sentient beings who, being covered over by foolishness and led astray by wrong views, turn their minds away from good friends and smash the boat of the right Dharma.

They level the mountain of the right Dharma, fell entirely the forest of wisdom, flee from the city of liberation, open the doors of the three evil paths, are unable to understand pure faith, and cannot establish the true banner of the Dharma; and so they burn down the palaces in the heavens. Then, amassing the precious wealth of the world, making themselves rich, they give rise to a mind of arrogance, without wisdom and foolish; they do not observe well, do not cultivate giving and wisdom, and moreover do not make use of their wealth.

On its account they are stingy and hoard it. They do not understand that this body, by aging, sickness, the suffering of death, is constantly followed. When they create evil karma, they take no care to repent.

While still young and strong, their strength is full and their bodies sturdy. Yet once the plumpness has passed, these are but filthy and foul things; nonetheless one gives rise to craving and defilement. When decline and old age arrive, the body trembles, the flesh becomes rough and coarse, and many dark spots appear.

The lips and mouth crack, the breath comes panting in and out, the hair grays and gradually falls, the teeth loosen and then drop. The body grows ulcers and sores that ruin the skin, the faculties gradually weaken, the sinews then contract and stretch, the head and feet draw near each other, and walking becomes difficult. The whole body is like tangled thread.

Yet desire still comes as if excited—singing and dancing, never reflecting—while the savory delicacies one can no longer eat. Should one wish to drink, the throat is no longer smooth. The eyes gaze upon the written words yet no longer understand them clearly.

When desire arrives, the speech is no longer clear. The breath going out and in, if it is not continuous—now obtained, now lost—then thereupon the body is foul, the belly swollen and distended, moaning piteously; only skin and bones remain, lying and sitting upon the bed. The face takes on a pallid hue.

Great anxiety arises. At that time a wind then strikes the four limbs, like the pricking of needles, an agony that cannot be endured. All the physicians, abandoning the patient, flee.

Many kinds of oppression burn the whole body. All the joys and regrets are then bestowed upon that one. All the precious goods, not yet wholly relinquished, are as if met by thunder and lightning, ruined and gone, without one's even being aware.

Naturally, a whole lifetime, in an instant, is transformed, making one fearful—father and mother, wife and children, kin within and without, sorrowfully shed tears, their hearts and livers aching with grief, crying out without cease: forsaking this place, where shall he go? Passing through to another existence, he comes and goes utterly alone; like a young merchant without a single companion. He enters a place of darkness, truly perilous, falling into a deep pit, sinking and floating in the sea of suffering, with nothing to rely upon and no place to seek rescue; with no place to take refuge.

The messengers of Yama, the Heavenly Mother of the black night, in their wrath gouging eyes and teeth, are truly to be feared, reviling most cruelly. They bind him and lead him away. That malady, like a wind, carries him to Yama; born without honoring wholesome deeds, in death he again falls into a place of suffering, where very many swords and blades fall from above, cutting and dividing the body, severing the hands and feet, cutting the heart and cutting the tongue, blood and flesh intermingled, the hands and feet, the nails and claws, piling up into masses; only the bones remain, the rest not yet dissolved, undergoing those great sufferings, his sorrow and vexation unceasing;

the wind of karma blows upon him, making him shake and quiver, undergoing suffering long and enduring, escaping only when the karma is exhausted.

If there are sentient beings who have faith in the words of the Buddha, who delight in doing wholesome deeds, benefiting and bringing ease and joy to all sentient beings, accordingly favorable, they obtain what is fine and good. Like one meeting cold and frost who is then warmed, like a person sweltering with heat who then meets coolness. For one hungry and thirsty, give spring water.

For one suffering hunger, provide food. For one crossing a river, make a boat or raft. For those without a place, give them a house and dwelling.

For the poor and destitute, provide wealth and goods. For those in dispute and litigation, exhort them to harmony and concord. For one traveling alone, be a companion to him.

For one sick and suffering, point out fine medicine and make the illness well. One bitten by a snake—apply and uphold the divine mantra to dispel the venom. For one arrogant, use the wisdom of right view to subdue him.

Each and every one is brought to peace, ease, and joy. If one is able to do thus, benefiting and bringing joy to sentient beings, in the present one then obtains merit and reward according to one's wish, and in another existence, only this karma of merit accompanies oneself, serving as the place of return, the place of rescue, the place of refuge.

If there are sentient beings whose karma of greed is hoarded up beyond even the field of merit, who are unable to give—like the Buddha's disciple Upāli who went to deliver such a one, yet his mind took no joy, having no faith that the merit of giving can bring about happiness. Still amassing a heap of evil deeds, he will afterward undergo the fruit of the cycle of rebirth. Even should he manage to become a human, he is born into a lowly place.

Or into a household of swine-slaughterers, or the trade of dung-scavengers, cart-makers, hair-workers, fishers, blacksmiths, farmers, weavers of cloth, barbers, dyers, those who wash in places that are in no way clean. Their food and drink are poor;

for others they serve as menials, their hands and feet filthy, much suffering yet desiring much, never seeing the light of the sun. Moreover they have many afflictions and sufferings such as: scabies and sores, boils, hemorrhoids, cancerous growths, malaria, dysentery, madness, fever from cold... such diseases as these torment this body, making it gaunt and emaciated, the hands and feet twisted and bent, the lips and mouth dried and parched, the head and hair disheveled, the two eyes oozing rheum, fallen in appearance and dependent on others, casting off their clothes, dragging one another as they run, or perhaps fleeing away, yet again unaware of it.

If anyone looks toward him, his form is naked and exposed, lying and sitting upon dung, as though taking pleasure in himself, fingering his own hair, doing shameless things, saying to those who come to visit, "What do you know me for?" or grasping broken vessels, flinging them all about the house, getting a few leftover scraps of food to nourish his life. Hundreds of thousands of maggots and worms vie with one another to encroach upon him.

Within and without is filth and foulness, and they are like enemies, gathered together through unwholesome causes. He himself does evil deeds and moreover bids others do them. This person's affliction and torment are beyond all reckoning.

Therefore the World-Honored One, ever out of great compassion, with pity and tender remembrance for all, causes them to give rise to a mind decisively to repent of faults, so that they may soon attain liberation and be freed from those wrongful deeds.

In the sutra it is said: only the deeds of cultivating and creating right conduct can enable a person to delight in the retribution of humans and gods. Therefore, O Bhikṣu! Receive and uphold this sutra and, for the sake of others, expound it; cultivating in this way, you will at once cause yourself and others to accomplish the canopy of merit.

At that time the World-Honored One was at the city of Rājagṛha, in the Bamboo Grove of Kalandaka, when Devadatta, in his extreme and vast foolishness, used a malicious and evil mind to harm the Buddha-Dharma, raising up hundreds of thousands of obstacles beyond measure. Yet he could not move so much as a single hair of the Buddha. Then, together with King Ajātaśatru, he ordered the Buddha to leave the city, and proclaimed that within that city no single person was permitted to come to the place of the Buddha—nor even to give food and drink or offerings—so that Gautama could not receive anything, thus compelling him to forsake this place and go to another country.

The king, hearing of this matter, came to believe it. At that time, within that city, the upāsakas, having clearly learned of this matter, then said: "Alas! Now the king at the city of Rājagṛha is not even master of himself.

But the Tathāgata is one who transcends the world, truly hard to encounter, like the Udumbara flower. How can the Great King believe such a heretical teacher, and not hear of our coming there to make offerings; making no promise to the Tathāgata, and hearkening to those people?" The Venerable Ānanda, having heard these words, then went and reported them to the Buddha, and the Buddha said: "I have already clearly understood this!

Have no worry. Within my Dharma there has never been a single Śrāvaka disciple who has suffered any want or lack—how much less my own body!" At that time the World-Honored One emitted a great light that shone upon the city of Rājagṛha, making it all pure; and those who met that light found their bodies and minds naturally at ease. At that time Śakra, seeing the light of the Buddha, used the divine eye to observe and clearly understand the reason therein, and so gave rise to great valor, manifested great majestic virtue, and for the sake of the dānapatis came there to make offerings.

The Sutra of the Collected Practices of the Right Conduct of the Canopy of Merit

End of fascicle two